Pat McAfee, Caitlin Clark, Jeff Darlington Credit: ESPN, USA Today Images, Liam McGuire
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This week, we’re celebrating the highs, the lows, the best, and the worst of the year with The Awfulies.

Started in 2022 and expanded in 2023, the Awful Announcing staff has cast its votes for who we think should take home the coveted golden microphone. Keep an eye on category and winner reveals all week long. And be sure to let us know who your pick would have been for the winners.

2024 had no shortage of wild, memorable, shocking, disappointing, and surprising sports media stories and moments. But at the end of the day, there can be only one Top Sports Media Story of 2024, Best Sports Media Moment of 2024, and Worst Sports Media Story of 2024. Let’s find out which ones took home the titles.

Top Sports Media Story of 2024

While 2024 was full of notable and momentous stories in the world of sports media, our staff singled out a few that stood above the rest.

The rise of women’s sports into the mainstream was certainly a running storyline all year long. While some still hate to acknowledge it, women’s basketball was a national story throughout 2024 thanks in large part to the ascension of Caitlin Clark and her fellow WNBA rookies. But we also saw women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s softball, and others get their moments in the sun. The sports media world took notice and, perhaps more importantly, so did the sports business world. And it feels like that growth and awareness are only just getting started.

When Tom Brady signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox, there were quite a few people who thought he’d never make it to a broadcast booth. However, Brady finally entered the Fox booth in 2024 and brought a megaton of hype with him. His debut was rocky, his growth was slow, and the doubters were loud (including us). But there’s no denying that Brady has remained a force of nature, bending Fox Sports’ NFL coverage to his will even as he continues to prove that he’s slightly better than mediocre in the booth.

Both of those stories garnered several votes, but the title of Top Sports Media Story of 2024 goes to the NBA media rights negotiations, which ended the league’s run of game broadcasts on TNT Sports, nearly killing the beloved Inside the NBA, only to see it (eventually) reborn on ESPN.

This story had it all. The intrigue of closed-door negotiations coupled with steady leaks and breadcrumbs. The hubris of David Zaslav and Warner Bros. Discovery thinking they could strong-arm the NBA and watching it blow up in their faces. The return of NBC (and hopefully “Roundball Rock”) to NBA broadcasting. Amazon stamping its arrival as a legitimate sports hub, garnering a slice of the media rights apple. WBD’s lawsuit threatened to derail all these plans. And in the middle of it all, Inside the NBA, seemingly left for dead, was resurrected in the end. Oh and don’t forget how Charles Barkley retired and unretired while waiting for all of this to play out.

This was the rare sports media story that lasted the entire calendar year and just kept introducing new wrinkles to remain relevant and top of mind the whole time. Plus, it made David Zaslav look silly, which everyone got to enjoy, though the jury is still out on how the move impacts WBD’s business moving forward.

Best Sports Media Moment of 2024

For most Awfulies categories, voters coalesced behind one, two, or maybe three nominees. This was the rare category that, after the first round of voting, every staff member voted for a different moment. Things got pared down after a second round of voting, but some of the sports media moments that received a nod include:

When the dust settled, we couldn’t agree on one singular sports media moment to define 2024. So we ended up splitting the vote for two memorable moments.

The first co-winner of Best Sports Media Moment of 2024 was Pat McAfee calling longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson a “rat” live on ESPN. Just six days into the year, McAfee was responding to a recent New York Post article calling out McAfee’s ratings as not good enough to be worth the controversy he brings, which he chalked up to Williamson.

The moment was shocking for several reasons. One, McAfee was literally on ESPN when he said it. Two, Williamson was one of those people who was long considered untouchable, or at the very least someone you didn’t mess with in Bristol. Three, Norby had garnered a reputation for doing the very thing that McAfee was accusing him of, so it felt like there might be validity to the claim. Fourth, it cemented McAfee’s status as the new untouchable persona at ESPN, as he received no public punishment over it.

The moment gained even more prominence when, three months later, the four-decade ESPN veteran was cut loose, ending an era in Bristol. A lot of sports media folks were happy to hear the news. Whether or not McAfee played any role in that decision, his comments seemed to be the moment when ESPN’s superstar era really took shape for the rest of 2024.

As for the other winner in the category, that goes to Jeff Darlington for breaking the Scottie Scheffler arrest and live-reporting the surreal scene as it happened. When the reigning Masters champion was detained by police outside Valhalla Golf Club before the PGA Championship, Darlington was right there, collecting video of the incident and balancing his need to report what was happening with a desire to try and bring some clarity to the situation.

Darlington became ESPN’s go-to reporter on the story as it developed. Not only that, his being in the right place at the right time is probably a large reason things played out how they did, given that his video was evidence used to help determine if the police officer had escalated the situation unfairly.

ESPN takes a lot of guff these days but Darlington’s work was a great reminder of what the company and its talented journalists are capable of when the situation calls for it.

Worst Sports Media Moment of 2024

One thing that 2024 had in spades was bad sports media moments. Among those that we noted while attempting to determine the worst of the bunch were:

In the end, one story rose to the top, or more specifically, sank to the bottom, to be named the Worst Sports Media Moment of 2024.

Let’s go back to April when Caitlin Clark is holding her introductory press conference after being drafted by the Indiana Fever. Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel flashed her the heart-emoji gesture that she displays for her family at games and then started an incredibly creepy and weird interaction.

Clark: You like that?

Doyel: I like that you’re here.

Clark: Yeah, I do that at my family after every game.

Doyel: Start doing it to me and we’ll get along just fine.

The whole thing didn’t sit well with, well, anyone. Doyel apologized, saying he was “clumsy” but “well-intentioned,” which seemed to underplay and hand-wave the harassing nature of the interaction. The columnist was eventually suspended and no longer allowed to attend Fever games. That decision sparked a whole other discussion. As the year went on, Clark’s mere presence created wild takes and disturbing narratives that pushed Doyel’s interaction into the background. But it now stands as the canary in the coal mine for what Clark, and women’s basketball, were about to deal with in 2024.

Check out all of the Awfulies winners here.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

View all posts by Sean Keeley